Tennessee Interfaith Power & Light 

A Spiritual Response to Climate Change 

www. tennipl.org tennesseeipl@gmaiLcom 

PO 5ox 12') Milligan College, TN ')7662 

RE: Docket ID: EPA-HQ-OAR-2013-0602 

I am Dan Joranko, president of the Tennessee Interfaith Power and 

Light, a statewide network of faith groups that spiritually responds to 

the moral challenges of climate change. I teach at Vanderbilt Divinity 

School and have preached on numerous occasions at United 

Methodist churches. 

We as a nation now understand that our burning massive amount of 

fossil fuel has caused climate change. Oil and coal have fueled 

industrial growth and our current standard of living. We are a 

generation causing carbon pollution, but it is our children and their 

children who will suffer the burdens of the increasing weather 

extremes of unabated climate change: increased hunger, 

homelessness, a decline in public health, and the changing of the 

natural world that will no longer support their well-being as it has 

ours. Through our inaction, we are imposing the costs of our behavior 

on our children and upon the most vulnerable. 

Climate change is fundamentally a moral issue. The core moral 

7/27/1410:32 AM 
principle embodied within the climate change challenge is that we 

should not harm others for our own perceived self-benefit. 

Our national moral response to climate change turns on our 

willingness to act on climate change even if we must risk certain 

perceived benefits from carbon pollution. While many would agree 

that our children should not bear the burden of our private gain, as a 

nation we still have yet to determine what it is worth to us to avoid 

future generations suffering from the consequences of our behavior. 

Religious traditions represented in Tennessee Interfaith Power 

and Light teach that we have special responsibilities to be stewards of 

Creation and protect the sanctity of the natural world. These 

traditions can call on us to make sacrifices to fulfill our moral duties. 

The small but real chance exists that unabated pollution carbon 

pollution will cause an utter climate catastrophe that risks ecological 

collapse and untold human suffering. We believe we must avoid a 

climate catastrophe that might put at risk our very survival. The time 

to think about the future of humanity is upon us. 

We as a society must acknowledge the moral issues associated with 

climate change and the need for difficult and perhaps uncomfortable 

decisions. We must reduce carbon pollution to safe levels. 

We can work together to redeem ourselves for the sake of our 

children. Through our actions of fulfilling our moral responsibilities, 

we can avoid putting our children in harms' way. Our children and 

their children will look back on us with gratitude for what we did to 

abate our carbon pollution. 

We can uphold the sanctity of the natural world through learning how 

to live within it harmoniously. By keeping in mind those living today 

and in the future, the most vulnerable here within our community and 
those around the globe, we can participate in the collective moral 

response to the climate challenge. 

Adopting national limits on carbon pollution of the EPA Clean Power 

plan is a critical first step in abating our carbon pollution. Tennessee 

Interfaith Power and Light agrees with the EPA that the plan will lead 

to climate and health benefits outweighing what we as a nation risk in 

perceived benefits. Our own generation can benefit from being on a 

healthier and more stable footing. 

We as a nation already know how to reduce our carbon pollution, 

methods the EPA has already presented the states as options to use 

within their State Implementation Plans. 

Tennessee Interfaith Power and Light upholds the vision of our 

generation accepting the moral responsibilities of our actions and 

determining to do the right thing, something that we already know in 

our hearts to be true. 

Thank you for this opportunity to speak. 

Dan Joranko, President 

Tennessee Interfaith Power and Light